Making the Great Walks Really Great

As covered previously, our recent tramp around Lake Waikaremoana lived up to the Great Walk title, but was slightly let down by not so great huts.  People we spoke to on the hike had similar stories: no water on the Tongariro Northern Circuit, no firewood (the only way to warm the huts), poor maintenance etc.  This is despite many huts being booked out for weeks or months.

Here is my solution to the above and other issues:

Create a 'Deputy Warden' system of volunteer backpackers and students to undertake basic tasks at the huts year round - checking hut tickets, cutting firewood, sweeping floors, basic maintenance etc.  They would get free accommodation and food provided.  Would backpackers and students be willing to volunteer to do this?  Thousands of people worldwide do WWOOFing and similar volunteer work for an experience like this.  A mandatory training course would enable qualified deputies go from area to area experiencing NZ's beautiful scenery on a minimal budget and with some great stories to take home.


Create similar volunteer groups to undertake weed and pest control during the off-season.  School tramping groups should at least have to do a half day of work to teach the students about invasive species and ecology.

Build small (approx 10m2) 4-6 bed pre-fabricated sleep-out style huts which can be transported by road, boat or helicopter to immediately supplement the existing overbooked accommodation.  These would be available at a higher rate than the dorm beds and could be booked by families or groups wanting privacy and a good night's sleep.  They could be equipped with solar lighting and secure doors, but cooking would still be done in the main building for the communal experience and atmosphere of the traditional hut.

Photo by Eric Martinot

Hold architectural competitions to design new landmark viewing platforms and footbridges to create discrete but memorable photo opportunities for people to take home and for journalists to feature in travel articles.

Roost Treehouse by Antony Gibbons Design

As a structural engineer I also couldn't help but notice that all of the smoke alarms had been removed from the Lake Waikaremoana huts, presumably because of false alarms from the wood burners and food cookers.

Surely this is a major safety issue with everyone bringing their own cooking equipment into the huts (no burners are provided).

This, coupled with somewhat meaningless 'box ticking' signage for exit routes from large single room dormitories highlights a disconnect between Building Code compliance and reality.